Asher -- an excellent, soft and sensitive Old Testament choice -- is a baby boy name on the rise, and is a Nameberry biblical favorite. Asher's ascent is especially amazing given that it took a hundred-year hiatus from the Top 1000, from the 1890s until reappearing in the 1990s. Asher has been in the US Top 100 for several years now.

In the Bible, Asher was one of Jacob's twelve sons who gave their names to the tribes of Israel.

Asher has been chosen for their sons by TV newswoman CampbellBrown and actress Embeth Davidtz. Its image was somewhat rejuvenated by an appearance as a character on Gossip Girl, and the rapper AsherRoth.

The novel My Name is AsherLev by Chaim Potok is the story of a NewYork Hasidic Jewish boy with artistic aspirations.

Carolinekalmes Says:

I have loved this name since I read "my name is Asher lev" almost 13 years ago. One of the boys I used to nanny is named Asher though, and he had four others in his class this year, so that unfortunately makes me not wanna use it. One day when I have kids, I do like "Lev" for a middle name though! It means "heart" in Hebrew.

Blinkonekatietwo Says:

Asher is my mother's maiden name. I love the name, but I fear that if I were to have a little Asher someday, it would just be seen as trendy. It carries personal connotations for me, so I deeply resent how popular it is.

lissrose30 Says:

homie.naomi Says:

I wish we had spelled it that way! Our son is named Asher and has his father's last name but my last name is Scher so if we had spelled it Ascher he would have been A Scher badum ching. But we thought it might just confuse people and chickened out and spelled it Asher.

headintheclouds Says:

It's the best Ash- name in my opinion, compared to Ashton, Ashley. Asher's meaning is wonderful, and I would choose this name for a son based on the meaning alone. But Asher's also a nice peppy and springy name, with an appealing -er ending, two-syllable just-right length, awesome nickname Ash and also strong roots and history.

All in all Asher's a hits-all-the-checkpoints kind of name. I personally like it but wouldn't use it for my own (hypothetical) kid. I've seen this name a lot these past few years (granted I am in church circles) and I feel it's going to become even more popular than it currently is.

Chloe14 Says:

fightyoctopus Says:

Yeahhhh I have an Asher, and when he was in the NICU there was one who had been discharged earlier that day... And our nurse the first night had a son named Asher... And the next nurse over had one as a grandson too! Also on six months since then we've met several others. Like this said it's a recent spike but a big one.

And I'm biased but I can see why! We had the hardest time finding a boys name to agree on that also was easy to say and spell, no nicknames we didn't like, and had a nice meaning.

indiefendi2 Says:

Chimaera88 Says:

We picked this for our son and spelled it Ascher, which we both felt made it look stronger. It was only after we picked it that we saw it was predicted to become one of the fastest rising names of the next couple years. *facepalm* It was too late by then and we still love it now.

KnightWolf Says:

Hmmm well I haven't met any of the new generations with this name yet because it really was/is quite rare. It's my middle name and would have never thought it would actually be "popular" especially since not many people even know where the word comes from. Plus I like having different or unique names :) 1999 P.S. Not trying to sound hipster.

tfzolghadr Says:

Alicia1 Says:

I can see why this name is so popular. I have always liked Ashton for a boy until Ashton Kutcher ruined that for me! Asher seemed like a way to get around that, then I checked NB and saw how popular this name has become. Still a great name!